As far as technological advances go, we have become really spoiled when it comes to making and taking phone calls. Remember the days of paying exorbitant amounts of money just to place a call? And forget about calling anyone outside of your city. We never even had to worry about dialing an area code!
Over the years, even newer technologies emerged. Allowing for multiple friends to chat over the phone lines at the same time. And now, we have the ability to group chat, call overseas, and look up what time Masters of the Universe is playing at the IMAX. All from the luxury of a device that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg every month to access these incredible, classic phone services we may (or may not) miss.
Calling Collect
There was a time when you needed to make a call (long-distance or from a payphone) but couldn’t or didn’t want to pay for it. So, you either called the “Operator” or 1-800-COLLECT! This ensured that the charge of the call would go to the one receiving the call rather than the one placing it.
But as society is known to sometimes do with these types of services, we found away around it so that nobody at all paid for the call. The joke eventually became, when you were prompted to give the operator your name, you’d very quickly say your entire message so that the person receiving the call knew what to do. (Typically, “we’re ready to be picked up from the skating rink.”) And the person on the other end would decline the collect call and hang up.
Long-distance Calling Cards
MCI, WorldCom, or even AT&T. Take your pick. Major phone carriers charged an arm and a leg to make a long-distance call. The further away, the pricier the conversation. When a new area code was added to a state, you ran the risk of a friend or family member 100 miles away becoming a “long-distance” phone call. I remember that chaos that ensued when Nevada was split into 2 different area codes.
But fortunately, these long-distance carriers supplied pre-paid calling cards. And they usually went for a discounted rate, but not by much. So once again, the public used all the workarounds available.
Waiting until after 9pm to make a long-distance call. Or what about the dial-around hacks for cheaper long distance? I call it a hack, but simply pre-dialing a special access code for whichever long-distance carrier was available at the time. Creating some competition!
The Infamous Busy Signal
While it does still happen today, although not as often, getting a busy signal back in the day was so devastating. It meant the person you were trying to call was unaware you were calling because the line was already in use. Like the “world was going to end” devastating because when you needed to talk to your friends and couldn’t get a hold of them because someone else in their house was using the phone, that was literally the end of the world.
And that my friends is what we now call, “being a teenager.”
3-way Calling
The OG group text amongst friends. This was a service provided by the phone company that allowed someone to make an outgoing call while they were already on the line with somebody else. Then linking the two calls so all three people can chat. And there was a fancy trick to it too. Basically by flicking the hang-up lever as to not fully drop the call. Dialing out and flicking the lever once more once the second call is connected, to merge the calls. This all before phones added the “Flash” button to simply complete this task.
And if multiple friends had call waiting, you could link up even more friends at the same time!
Movie Phone
These were the days of calling for things like getting the time, the weather, or even a listing of what movies were playing in the local movie theaters!
Just looking back at these, I’m truly amazed of how far we’ve come with phone service technology. Grateful, that’s for sure. But I’ll never forget the incredible times I had talking to my friends for hours on end on our own house lines. Or calling for the time of day, just because we could. Oh these were such wonderful times. Which classic phone service do you miss most, if any at all?